Sixth Sense
by MegTDJ
Summary: Missing scene for The Fifth Race. When did she start being able to read him like a book? Ten in the Love Comes Softly series.


Title: Sixth Sense  
Author: MegTDJ  
Category: Missing scene; drama  
Rating: K  
Pairing: Daniel/Janet friendship  
Spoilers: The Fifth Race  
Summary: Missing scene for The Fifth Race; When did she start being able to read him like a book? #10 in the Love Comes Softly series.  
Disclaimer: Stargate SG-1, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.

Author's notes: There may be some confusion over the order of the next few missing scenes in this series, so I'm going to warn you ahead of time - I'm going by the order they aired rather than the order they're listed on the DVDs. I'd created this timeline for Daniel and Janet long before I got the DVDs, so... yeah. You don't have to point it out to me, because I already know. ;)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

**Sixth Sense**

Daniel's head was in the clouds as he walked through the corridors of the SGC towards Jack's on-base quarters, but he snapped back to reality when he rounded a corner and almost plowed right into Janet Fraiser.

"Sorry!" he said as Janet jumped in surprise and stepped back to avoid him. "Didn't see you coming."

"Honestly, Daniel, I'm not _that_ much shorter than you," Janet teased. "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

"Uh... to see Jack," Daniel said, pointing vaguely in the direction she'd just come.

"Oh, well, I was just there checking up on him," Janet said. "I'm afraid he's fast asleep."

Daniel felt somewhat disappointed by this. He hadn't really had a chance to talk to Jack much about what had happened to him - at least not one-on-one - and he was dying to know everything about the Asgard home world. Jack had given his usual bland description during the debriefing, but he'd been whisked back to the infirmary for more tests before Daniel had the chance to ask any in-depth questions. There were so many things he simply _had to know_.

"Okay..." he said, scratching his head as he tried to figure out what to do now. "I'll catch him tomorrow."

Janet peered up at him with her most scrutinizing look. "You look exhausted," she said. "Have you had any sleep at all lately?"

Daniel gave her a wry smile. "Not since this whole thing started," he said. "You?"

"Ditto," Janet said sheepishly. "I was actually just going to head out."

The thought of going home to his nice, warm bed made a yawn creep up into Daniel's throat, and it was all he could do to stifle it. "I guess I should, too," he said.

"Good. Just don't fall asleep at the wheel."

Daniel laughed. "I won't," he said.

The two of them entered the elevator moments later, and Daniel immediately pressed the button for Level 18.

"I thought you were going home?" Janet said disapprovingly.

"I am," Daniel said. "I just have to pick up a few things from my office first."

"Uh huh," Janet said, obviously not buying it. "You're not one to let things go very easily, are you, Daniel Jackson?"

Daniel looked at her in surprise. "What does that mean?"

"I saw how you were chomping at the bit for a chance to interrogate Colonel O'Neill during the debriefing. Since you can't talk to him tonight, you're going back to your office for the notes you took so you can stay up all night studying them. Am I right?"

Daniel gaped at her. When the hell did she start being able to read him like a book?

He hadn't even had the chance to defend himself before she smirked and turned to look straight ahead at the elevator doors. "That's what I thought."

"I... the... Jack was..."

"He had the adventure of a lifetime, I know," Janet said. "And you wish it could have been you." She looked back up at him then, and her gaze was so steady that her eyes seemed to see straight into his mind. It was rather unnerving.

Daniel was about to speak when the elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. He sighed and took a step forward, but turned around in the doorway to face her. "Of course I wish it could have been me," he said. "Jack had practically all the knowledge in the universe literally downloaded into his brain. What scholar in their right mind wouldn't want that?"

Janet smiled softly, but there was an edge of sadness to it. "Which is exactly why I'm glad it wasn't you," she said. "You wouldn't have wanted to get rid of it, which means by now... you'd probably be dead."

Daniel found himself gaping again as Janet pressed one of the buttons and the doors started to close. He hopped out of the way just in time, and then Janet was gone.

He thought about what she'd said as he slowly made his way to his office. She wasn't right, was she? He wouldn't have knowingly killed himself just to have access to that knowledge... would he?

Thinking back over the past few years, though, maybe he would. He remembered how curious he'd been about the chart of Stargate addresses he'd found on Abydos, leading to digging up the Stargate and allowing Apophis to come through it. How desperate he'd been to collect all the information he could from the "book" on Ernest's planet, even if it meant being left there alone for the rest of his life. How anxious he had been to decipher the tiny text on the "time capsule" they'd found a few weeks earlier, almost losing Jack because of it. He really did take insane risks for the sake of knowledge, and he never even realized it until afterwards.

No wonder Jack was always watching him like a hawk when they were off-world.

"Daniel?"

The sudden voice startled him, and he spun around to see Janet standing tentatively in the doorway of his office. "Hello again," he said. "It isn't tomorrow already, is it?"

Janet smiled. "No, I just wanted to apologize for being so... analytical. I probably came across as rude, and that wasn't my intention."

"No, no, you didn't," Daniel said. "You were right. I... would have lost perspective had I been in Jack's shoes." He looked down at his desk and started shuffling papers around so he wouldn't have to see her giving him another one of those searching looks of hers. She didn't need to see how much her comments had hit home.

"Maybe so," Janet said, "but... it didn't happen to you. It happened to Colonel O'Neill. I wanted to tell you this earlier and never got the chance... I was really proud of what you did for him. At first I suspected you stayed so close to him because you wanted to learn what he knew... but you proved me wrong. You were a great friend to him, and I admire that."

Daniel lowered his head and looked up at her over the rims of his glasses as she spoke. He'd never known her to praise him like that before, and he wasn't quite sure whether to be flattered or humbled by it. The latter was certainly closer to how he felt than the former.

He cleared his throat nervously when she finished speaking. "Thank you," he said. "I guess I... knew he would have done the same for me."

Janet gave him a bright smile and gestured towards the hallway. "Ready to go?" she asked. "I'll walk out with you."

Daniel looked down at the papers and notebooks on his desk and then back at Janet. It didn't take him long to make his decision. "Okay, let's go," he said with a nod.

He stopped to lock his office on his way out, but didn't even look back at his desk one last time. His work could wait until tomorrow. Right now he had a friend with a sixth sense for knowing when he was overdoing it, and he didn't plan on giving her anything more to worry about.

THE END


End file.
